VOL. 53 ISSUE 17 MAY 3, 2016 P33
ing the worst going out there
but the track wasn't that bad."
What "wasn't that bad" for
Russell proved challenging
enough for others, includ-
ing Strang who got stuck in
a mud hole. JCR Honda's
Chris Bach capitalized on his
misfortune and moved into
second, and behind him,
the battle for third between
Westfield Powersports KTM's
Jordan Ashburn and Rocky
Mountain ATV-MC/KR4/FAR
Racing Husqvarna's Thad
Duvall was heating up. The
duo pushed each other to set
some of the quickest lap times
of the day, passing Bach in the
process. But in their battle, they
didn't succeed in reeling in Rus-
sell, who sailed to the win with a
40-second gap.
Ashburn and Duvall, now bat-
tling for second, chased each
other through the remaining laps
of the race, and crossed the fin-
ish line only two seconds apart
with Ashburn taking runner-up
honors.
"Once I got up to second
Thad was right behind me and
he continued pushing me the
whole race," Ashburn said. "My
main goal was to not make any
mistakes and it feels great to
finally get back on the podium."
Bach held on for fourth fol-
lowed by Steward Baylor and
Strang.
In the XC2 Pro Lites division, it
was Craig DeLong who took the
$125 Hot Cams Holeshot Award,
but it was his Coastal Racing/
Husqvarna/MSR teammate
Layne Michael who took home
his first win of the season. Nick
Davis piloted his N-Fab AmPro
Yamaha into second place from
a dead-last start, while DeLong
rebounded from a first-lap crash
to round out the podium in third.
JCR Honda's Trevor Bol-
linger, who had been dominating
the XC2 class up to this point,
suffered an ill-fated mechanical
issue that saw him getting towed
back to the pits. Fortunately
for Bollinger, he still has a firm
grasp on the XC2 points lead
with 123 over DeLong at 104. CN
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEN
HILL
(Above) Runner-up Jordan Ashburn
(pictured) came out on top after
battling all the way to the finish with
Thad Duvall.
(Below) Thad Duvall celebrated his
first podium of the season with his
third-place finish at round five.
